[FQP] [FCG] K4OJ MM/m Photos!

[Christopher Blake]

Thanks so much George for the kind words; really appreciate your enthusiasm
(same as me - I'm hooked!) :-)
Let me try to answer your comments/questions for you and others:
1.) Sardines! (hi!!!)- yep!
2.) Once you got Red into the front seat, were you able to extricate him,
or is he still there? We carry a 'jaws of life' as standard equipment for
each of us!
3.) Strapping the laptop to the back of the front seat was ingenious. Thanks!
 we did it in the 3rd row 10m station as well; space is a premium (see
sardines above)
4.) What was the KPA500 used for? Our 2nd row stations were a 40m IC-756
with a KX-3 for 15m on top of the 756.
We put the KPA500 in the very back of the SUV to bring the QRP level up to
100W (A KX-3 can drive a KPA500 up to 170-180W).  I already had the KPA500
when I bought the KX-3. I can talk more about how this was done during a
presentation - there are some fine details to lengthy to mention here.
5.) Was your metal trailer hitch rack grounded to the car?  The hitch is
aluminum (lighter, better conductor) and only 'grounded' via the hitch
itself.  I purposely did *not* ground the generator to car or hitch to
avoid ground loops; again too much fine detail for email, perhaps more
during a presentation.  We ran out of time to see if grounding the gennie
reduces noise but some quick testing I did showed no difference (as it
should).

6.) How did the 10m stick on the metal trailer hitch rack perform compared
to the roof mounted sticks.  We tried a rear mounted stick on both 40m and
10m to see if we could reduce interference, and to provide a backup antenna
location (we tried to have a backup for just about everything).  On both
40m and 10m, the roof antennas worked significantly better, as we expected.
 I tried the "inverted L" mostly to get more horizontal polarization to get
better rejection to the roof mounted verticals.  That just didn't work (see
'moment of insanity' comment with photo).
FYI- I believe our remaining interstation noise is more from conducted vs.
radiated emissions; future experiments will focus on confirming this so
countermeasures can be devised.

7.) Were you concerned about the safety of the gas can on the trailer hitch
rack.  Not really; I placed reflective tape on all sides of the cargo
carrier and make sure that the SUV tail lights were not blocked in any way.
 I tried to find FL regulations regarding running a generator/motor while
in motion - don't think there is anything on the books...

Hope this helps; thanks again George!

vy 73,
Chris, NX4N



On Sat, May 3, 2014 at 1:10 PM, <Georgek5kg at aol.com> wrote:

>  Chris,
>
> Excellent photos of your operation.  I have some comments and questions.
>
> 1.) Sardines! (hi!!!)
>  2.) Once you got Red into the front seat, were you able to extricate
> him, or is he still there?
> 3.) Strapping the laptop to the back of the front seat was ingenious.
> 4.) What was the KPA500 used for?
> 5.) Was your metal trailer hitch rack grounded to the car?
> 6.) How did the 10m stick on the metal trailer hitch rack perform compared
> to the roof mounted sticks.
> 7.) Were you concerned about the safety of the gas can on the trailer
> hitch rack.
>
> You and your co-ops are certainly to be commended for what you were able
> to do.  I strongly recommend you send a report and a photo to the League.
> From an emergency communications perspective, you have demonstrated what
> can be done by hams.
>
> CONGRATS!
>
> 73, Geo...
>
> George Wagner, K5KG
> Sarasota, FL
> 941-400-1960 cell
>
>  In a message dated 5/3/2014 6:20:18 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> cqdenx4n at gmail.com writes:
>
> https://www.hightail.com/download/ZUcxckhmYWJ0d0VQWWNUQw
>
>